All that is Solid … is a radical blog that seeks to promote a future beyond capital's social universe. "All that is solid melts into air" (Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 'The Communist Manifesto', 1848).

Glenn Rikowski @ ResearchGate

I have had many articles, papers, reports, presentations and teaching documents at Academia for some years now. But for the last year I have built up my collection of papers, articles etc. at ResearchGate.

Misrepresentations: Critical Notes on Commodities and Education

This is a paper I wrote in response to a presentation I went to at the 2017 Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (PESGB) Annual Conference at Oxford, by David Bridges.

The paper was completed on 3rd October 2017, at is now available at Academia.

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that attempts to understand commodification in education and educational research without recourse to the greatest thinker on commodity forms – Karl Marx – inevitably leads to confusion and misrepresentation in educational theory. This is demonstrated through a critique of a recent paper by David Bridges (2017) where he focuses on commodification in education research. By ignoring the ideas of Marx, but also contemporary Marxist theorists writing on the commodity and commodification, Bridges fails to make crucial distinctions in the analysis of commodification, and also conflates and confuses concepts and their corresponding phenomena that should be kept separate. In the event, Bridges, and other mainstream educational theorists who avoid reference to Marx and Marxist theory, end up creating a host of misrepresentations in their analyses of educational commodification. Such approaches camouflage the capitalisation of education; that is, educational institutions ‘becoming capital’, the becoming of capital. These theorisations are superficial and politically misleading.

To date research and scholarship on privatisation in education lacks critical depth and intensity. Stock concerns occupy contributions to the field: the effects of privatisation in education on teachers’ labour, pay and conditions of service; educational expenditure; resultant problems of planning at local and national levels; corruption (systemic, and by teachers); and on the curriculum and pedagogy. Additionally, many accounts have been largely descriptive, focusing on how privatisation takes place, or on threats to privatisation, or its insertion within education systems. Many case studies have been undertaken in this light, with sectoral, country-wide and local cases. There has been less emphasis on why privatisation in education occurs. Resistance to educational privatisation has been another common theme. Finally, work on educational commodification has been substantially dissociated from studies on privatisation in education. This paper builds on this last point. Writing and research on privatisation in education has largely avoided what it represents and calls forth: the development of capital, the deeper capitalisation of education. Furthermore, discussion on educational privatisation typically ignores its implication in the social production of labour-power. Therefore, with reference to Karl Marx, this contribution drives the critique of privatisation in education forward by focusing on commodity form(s) in education and their relations to the capitalisation of educational services. Consequently, the points of resistance to privatisation in education are sharpened as anti-capitalist weapons.

CRITIQUE OF THE CLASSICAL THEORY OF EDUCATION CRISIS

Glenn Rikowski, Visiting Fellow, College of Social Science, University of Lincoln, UK

This is a paper prepared for the International Centre for Public Pedagogies (ICPuP), International Seminar for Public Pedagogies at the University of East London for 21st February 2018. See the post below for details.

The Classical Theory of Education Crisis is the default theory utilised by educational theorists for understanding the constitution and explanation of education crises in contemporary society. Following a brief outline of the concept of crisis, and the histiography of the notion of education crisis from the Second World War to the neoliberal recession of 1980-82, there is a an outline of The Classical Theory of Education Crisis as most fully expressed in Madan Sarup’s classic Education, State and Crisis: A Marxist Perspective (1982). The key aspect of the Classical Theory is that education crises are derivative of economic crises. This is followed by the main event: critique of the Classical Theory. Its reliance on structuralist thought (with associated determinism, functionalism and reductionism) and the inflow of economics imperialism are some of its key deficiencies. The Conclusion outlines ground still to be covered and the need to move beyond the Classical Theory of Education Crisis.

KRISTI’S SHOE REPAIRS – ILFORD: SAVE KRISTI’S!

Kristi’s Shoe Repairs has been a part of Ilford station for over a quarter of a century providing quality shoe repair services to commuters and local customers. Kristi’s is not just a local business with a loyal customer base, it is part of the Ilford Community and as a small local business Kristi’s pays it taxes to the local community.

The upgrade of Ilford Station as part of the London Cross Rail project is a welcomed improvement for the people of Ilford and London as a whole. However instead of embracing this small local business, TFL and its subsidiary Crossrail are evicting Kristi’s from the new station. Despite my many requests, TFL and its agents have not offered Kristi’s any space in the new station.

Unless there is a change of heart by TFL, Kristi’s at Ilford Station will close its door for the last time in 2017. With your help by signing the petition to save Kristi’s we may be able to persuade TFL to include this small and successful local business alongside the many corporate retailers that are being brought into the newly developed Ilford station.

I have been taking my shoes to be repaired at Kristi’s Shoe Repairs in Ilford since the business started up. Jimmy Papi is a real craftsman: top quality work, good value and he gives great advice about the care of shoes and how to make them last longer. Kristi’s provides a very friendly and helpful service. This is a small, community and highly professional business that Ilford and the surrounding area needs. TfL, the Mayor of London and Redbridge Council should surely reserve a place for Kristi’s in the planned redevelopment of Ilford Station. The new development should not just be about boring chain stores and outlets!

A paper prepared for the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (PESGB) Annual Conference, New College, Oxford, 31st March – 2nd April, 2017

Glenn Rikowski, Visiting Fellow, College of Social Science, University of Lincoln, UK

Abstract: ‘Crisis’ is a concept increasingly used in media reports on education. This paper argues that philosophers of education have a unique contribution to make regarding the nature and constitution of education crisis. Thus, they have a responsibility to take up the challenge of developing perspectives on education crises. Following examinations of the concept of crisis and The Marxist-oriented Classical Theory of Education Crisis (where education crises are derivative of economic ones), the paper forges an autogenous theory of education crisis through Robin Barrow’s (2011) précis of R.S. Peters’s concept of education. Some education crises are crises of education; not necessarily crises in education with origins elsewhere in society. For these forms of crisis, the concept of education itself should be the starting point for analysis. The paper opens up a new field of study for educational philosophers by indicating how education crises can emerge from within education institutions and settings.

A talk and discussion about library campaigns, radical librarianship and re-imagining the library as a public space

Why Library Is Not A Dirty Word

VENUE & PROGRAMME CHANGE

There have been some changes to the venue and programme: though the day (Friday 10th June) and time (7.00 – 8.30pm) are still the same.

Apologies for the short notice

New Venue:

THE FROUD CENTRE

The Coffee Bar

1 Toronto Avenue

Manor Park

Newham

E12 5JF

(In fact, only 3 minutes’ walk from the original venue, the Rabbits Road Institute. Just walk along the Romford Road towards Ilford, and The Froud Centre is easily recognisable: it’s on the corner between Toronto Avenue and Romford Road)

New Programme:

Speaker: Ruth Rikowski – writer, lecturer at London South Bank University, libraries professional and campaigner, author of Globalisation, Information and Libraries: The Implications of the World Trade Organisation’s GATS and TRIPS Agreements (Chandos Publishing), and a freelance editor for Chandos Publishing.

Economists aren’t sure the world economy ever got over the 2008/9 crisis but already warn of new financial and sovereign debt crises. Secular stagnation has become common parlance in economic circles.

Only environmentalists, pointing at climate change, the decline of biodiversity, water shortages and concomitant desertification, paint an even gloomier picture of the state and future of the world.

Not surprisingly, political scientists register a crisis of legitimation but also various crises of representation making it difficult for the discontented to articulate their concerns and mount movements for social and ecological change.

For the most parts, the left with its tradition of seeing itself as socialist heir of capitalist crises can’t capitalize on the overabundance of such crises. The crisis of the left, one might think, is even deeper than the various crises of capitalism.

The session “Crises? What Crises?” invites papers discussing any of the following questions:

Which kinds of crises is capitalism facing these days? Crises of the economy, ecology, legitimation, representation and/or hegemony?

Do these crises affect only subsystems of capitalism or do they add up to an organic or general crisis of capitalism?

Are these crises structural or conjunctural?

What role could the left play in overcoming capitalist crises?

Is the left in crisis, too? If so, what kind of crisis is that and how might it be overcome?